| | |  | Software Engineering | Home » » » Learn Objective-C on the Mac (Learn Series) | | | | | | | Description: | | Take your coding skills to the next level with this extensive guide to Objective–C, the native programming language for developing sophisticated software applications for Mac OS X. Objective–C is a powerful, object–oriented extension of C, making this book the perfect follow–up to Dave Mark’s bestselling Learn C on the Mac, Mac OS X Edition. Whether you’re an experienced C programmer or you’re coming from a different language such as C++ or Java, leading Mac experts Mark Dalrymple and Scott Knaster show you how to harness the powers of Objective–C in your applications! - A complete course on the basics of Objective–C using Apple’s free Xcode tools
- An introduction to object–oriented programming
- Comprehensive coverage of inheritance, composition, object initialization, categories, protocols, memory management, and organizing source files
- A brief tour of Cocoa’s foundation framework and AppKit
- A helpful “learning curve” guide for non–C developers
What you’ll learn - Learn Objective–C programming, the gateway to programming your Mac or iPhone
- Write applications for the Mac OS X interface, the cleanest user–interface around
- Understand variables and how to design your own data structures
- Work with the file system
- Connect to data sources and the Internet
Who this book is for For anyone wanting to learn to program native applications in Mac OS X, including developers new to the Mac, developers new to Objective–C, or students entirely new to programming. | | | Features: | |
• Apress Learn ObjectiveC on the Mac
• Take your coding skills to the next level with this extensive guide to ObjectiveC, the native programming language for developing sophisticated software applications for Mac OS X.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Scott Knaster | | Paperback:
| 360 pages | | Publisher:
| Apress | | Publication Date:
| January 07, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1430218150 | | Product Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.5 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.39 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.21 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.01 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.02 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.23 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 54 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 54 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 52 found the following review helpful:
 Very useful and a fun readJan 08, 2009
By S. Looker
I recently started reading this book. I should start by saying I am an experienced Objective-C programmer, but I usually find a useful new tidbit or two in a new book.
I have been enjoying this book immensely, because the tone of the book is much more light-hearted than the normal technical tome. Instead of hundreds of lines of passive voice text, droning on and one with massive repetition of the same stuff to pad the page count enough, this book flows right along. It moves from topic to topic with a nice amount of detail, but without padding and fluff. Examples are written with a slightly humorous touch that makes the reading a pleasure and keeps your interest focused on what is being said.
Explanations of areas such as memory management are nice and straight forward. New items found in Objective-C 2.0 are covered, and a modern version of Xcode is described.
This book presumes (and states upfront) that you are expected to at least know C or similar programing language, so if you don't know how to program already, don't start with this book.
This book is about using Objective-C, but also includes looks at some important parts of Cocoa. Both the writers and the publisher make the assumption that you are intelligent enough to know how to use the internet to find resources instead of listing detailed URLs in the text, which I really liked. It lets me focus on the content being presented, not the mechanics of how to do auxiliary things I already know how to do.
I am definitely recommending this book to anybody new to Objective-C, as well as suggesting that it is a good quick reference to have handy even for experienced programers.
28 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Good intro for Mac or iPhone programmingJan 04, 2009
By Timothy T. Hume
This book provides a really good intro to Objective-C. It also gives some info on Xcode and Cocoa. It is geared towards programmers that have some experience, but want to learn to program for the Mac or iPhone. I think even intermediate and experienced Mac programmers can find some useful information in here. There is enough information here to really get going. The information is also concise enough to not be overwhelming. I wish I'd had this book when I was starting out.
48 of 60 found the following review helpful:
 DisappointingFeb 21, 2009
By A Friend
"Not My Real Name"
I had high expectations for this book, based on my experience with other books in the Apress series for learning programming on the Macintosh. However, while the authors of this book are obviously knowledgeable about their subject, I don't think they have a handle yet on how to present their knowledge in book form. My impression is that the authors took transcripts of a seminar on Objective-C that they led and then gave it to someone else to put into book form.
Also, the book is full of typos--even in the source code examples! In one case, it is obvious even to a beginner that a source code example could not have produced the sample of program output shown, because the output is in a different order than the print statements in the program. In another case, the text of the book refers to a line of program code that is missing from the code example. This kind of sloppy proofreading is inexcusable in a programming text.
14 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Excellent for learning the language beneath CocoaJan 20, 2009
By Scott Newman
This is a fantastic book for learning Objective-C, the language you need to know if you want to write programs in Cocoa for the Mac or iPhone. Be warned: this is not a book on Cocoa which is a framework built on top of Obj-C. You'll need to know this material to make any sense of the Cocoa or Cocoa Touch frameworks which can be daunting.
If you're brand new to programming, you should probably start with "Learn C on the Mac" because Obj-C is the C programming language with some extra functionality. Confused? If you don't have experience in C, go with this progression: "Learn C on the Mac", then "Learn Objective-C on the Mac", then a full Cocoa book such as Aaron Hillegass' excellent "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X".
You will learn a little Cocoa in the book, as well as a bit about XCode, the freely available Mac IDE for Cocoa and Objective-C development. Having tried to learn these on my own, I can say this book is a timesaver with tips and tricks for getting things working.
If you are coming from a higher-level language such as Python, Perl, or PHP, be prepared for a little pain while you get used to it. Objective-C will be like having a strict boss after working for yourself for years; you'll need to do things such as declare your variable types, manage your objects memory allocation, and declare the return types for your functions/methods.
The authors definitely had fun writing the material and don't take themselves too seriously, and it comes across well in the material. They have done an excellent job of keeping the material fun to learn.
Note: I recently took the 7-day "Beginning Cocoa" class at the Big Nerd Ranch in Atlanta, and this book was used as the coursework for the first two days.
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Clear ~and~ funnyDec 29, 2008
By L. Dill
What more would one want in a book like this? It is clear, logical, concise enough, and comes with a chaser of humor (to keep all that clarity, practicality, efficiency and logic from being too dry to swallow). I especially like the sidebars that summarize and define important terms as the book unfolds. If one followed this book, one would easily go from a beginner to a reasonable Objective-C programmer almost effortlessly... or, as the book says, "In this chapter, you wrote your first two Objective-C programs, and it was fun!"
See all 54 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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